1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a zooming camera apparatus and, more particularly, to an auto-zooming camera apparatus having photographing magnification setting and displaying functions.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, with the advent of cameras for moving a lens by a motor, cameras provided with various functions have been proposed. For example, the functions include an auto-focus function for measuring a distance to an object, and automatically moving a focusing lens to an in-focus position, a power-zooming function for, when a photographer (user) operates a switch for indicating a telephoto- or wide angle-side direction, automatically driving a zooming lens according to the operation, and the like.
As a combination of the auto-focus function and the power-zooming function, an auto-zooming function for automatically performing a zooming operation while maintaining a constant photographing magnification (=lens focal length+object distance) has already been proposed. Furthermore, in some auto-zooming functions, an arbitrary magnification can be selected from a magnification (e.g., .times.1/50) for photographing the upper half of a body as an object, and a magnification (e.g., .times.1/70) for photographing the whole body using a selection switch.
In a conventional auto-zooming camera, however, a photographing magnification can only be displayed on an outer portion of a camera (outside a finder). For this reason, a user cannot perform an operation for changing the photographing magnification while he or she holds a camera ready to shoot. Therefore, the operation for changing the photographing magnification is troublesome for a photographer.
An operation switch used in the power-zooming function is not used while the auto-zooming function is used, resulting in poor cost performance.